(Question number 1) The Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov is considered to be one of the best documental films of all the time. It is a truly revolutionary work in the art sphere of that time. The director was experimenting with the camera, the light, the subjects of shots, the rhythm and the editing. As a result the viewers got an unprecedented picture of life in the Soviet Union in 1920s.
In my opinion, Dziga Vetrov succeeded in depicting the life of that time in its true colors without influence on the viewers’ thoughts. The big eye of the camera captures everything that is happening: the opening of the local stores in the morning, the movement of public transport, people working at the factory, the death, the birth, the wedding, etc. It is all what everyone can see in his/her everyday life. It is an inevitable part of our life.
Describing the Vertov’s work Roger Ebert was talking about transcendence. The director had always been in the search of energy. He was captivated by the idea of the conservation of energy, thus he wanted to prove the endlessness of the being. Vertov’s film is the most unprejudiced depiction of life. It is a great gift for the contemporary viewers as The Man with a Movie Camera tells the story of that time, which is priceless and should be preserved as the treasure of the world cinematography and history.
Response to peer’s post
My classmate’s report is quite an interesting one. I tried to perceive it as a reader who knows nothing about the topic and it caught my attention. The author has succeeded in discussing the film The Rules of The Game. The strong point was mentioning all the relations between the main characters as it provides a reader with the general plot of the film. Nevertheless, I should say that in my point of view the quote “how many lovers do you have” wasn’t described thoroughly, as a reader, I didn’t find a connection between the author’s words and this quotation. In my opinion the saying “the awful thing about life is that everyone has his reasons” wasn’t connected to the topic. The author presented his/her own thoughts, but they weren’t proved by the evidence from the movie. In this case I have a question for the author: how is this saying represented in the historical and social context of the film?
